Million Euro Boost for Neuro Start-up to Address Mental Health Disorders with Flickering Light

08-Apr-2024 - When the Siegert group succeeded in rejuvenating mice brains in 2021, they already suspected the method’s non-invasive and non-pharmaceutical potential to treat mental health disorders. Through the Institute’s technology transfer program, xista innovation, they launched a MedTech company called ...

Immune Cells Shape their own Path

Scientists show how immune cells migrate along self-generated gradients

05-Sep-2023 - When fighting disease, our immune cells need to reach their target quickly. Researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) now discovered that immune cells actively generate their own guidance system to navigate through complex environments. This challenges earlier notions ...

Bacteria as Blacksmiths

New Method to Assemble Unconventional Materials

07-Aug-2023 - A hot bath is a place to relax. For scientists, it is also where molecules or tiny building blocks meet to form materials. Researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) take it to the next level and use the energy of swimming bacteria to forge materials. A recent study in ...

(How) Cells Talk to Each Other

ISTA Scientists Successfully Model Cell Dynamics

24-Jul-2023 - Like us, cells communicate. Well, in their own special way. Using waves as their common language, cells tell one another where and when to move. They talk, they share information, and they work together – much like the interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Institute of Science and ...

DNA Organization in Real-Time

How the motion of DNA controls gene activity

04-Jul-2023 - Despite being densely packed to fit into the nucleus, chromosomes storing our genetic information are always in motion. This allows specific regions to come into contact and thereby activate a gene. A group of scientists from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), Princeton ...

New Stem Cell Mechanism in Your Gut

Exciting new mechanism could change our understanding of what a stem cell is

15-Jul-2022 - Stem cells are a hot topic for creating medical treatments. However, scientists still do not fully understand how they choose to divide or differentiate to renew organs. Researchers have now found a new biophysical mechanism that regulates stem cells in the intestines of mice. There, a stem cell ...

Dividing walls: How immune cells enter tissue

Findings give the full picture of a process just as important for healing as for the spread of cancer

25-Apr-2022 - To get to the places where they are needed, immune cells not only squeeze through tiny pores. They even overcome wall-like barriers of tightly packed cells. Scientists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have now discovered that cell division is key to their success. ...

Resisting the pressure

Scientists discover a mechanism that helps immune cells to invade tissues: Foundation for identifying new targets in cancer treatment

10-Jan-2022 - To fight infections and heal injuries, immune cells need to enter tissue. They also need to invade tumors to fight them from within. Scientists from the Siekhaus group at the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria now discovered how immune cells protect their sensitive insides as they ...

How Cells Feel Curvature

Scientists find mechanism that allows cells to sense the curvature of tissue around them

22-Nov-2021 - Cells in your body cannot see, but they can feel their surroundings and their own shape. Scientists at the University of Mons and the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria now showed via both - experiments and theory - how cells can sense the curvature of tissue around them and how ...

Boosting the cell’s power house

Scientists describe for the first time the structure of a protein complex essential for our cells to function properly

08-Oct-2021 - Severe fatigue, muscle weakness, even blindness – mitochondrial diseases have various symptoms. In fact, the majority of genetic diseases are caused by defects of the mitochondria. Hence, understanding these “power houses” of our cells is crucial for the developments of new treatments. In a study ...